Now, in this town, people associate me with music. When someone mentions my name in conversation, there are varied responses: "You mean the angry looking guy mixing sound at A Dough Re Mi?" or " Doesn't he play with that dude called "Kung Fu" or " I read his column in the Moultrie News" (when he gets it turned in on time to print).

But what people may not know about me is my love for food. Not only am I very good at eating but I know my way around a kitchen. Hungry? I could whip you up a delicious Lowcountry meal consisting of red rice, fried fish, green peas, cole slaw, corn bread and sweet tea. Or maybe you'd like a steak, let's say, a ribeye, marinated then slowly grilled to a medium rare with grilled vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes.

Pared with one of the amazing Cabernet Sauvignon and you've got one heck of a meal.

Room for dessert?

My cheesecakes are almost legendary.

How about a slice of homemade New York cheesecake with homemade lemon curd topping, garnished with a few sprigs of fresh mint? Something more exotic? I'll break out my ice cream churn and make a batch of Kiwi-Strawberry sorbet and serve it with pirouette cookies.

But, suffice it to say, Stu knows food.

So when I write about a local eatery, I am paying them a great compliment. Because like with the music, if I don't have anything nice to say about a place, then I write about some other place. It's always a bonus when that place also happens to have live music there.

Moultrie Shopping Center has become a scene unto itself with three restaurants that have live music. At Iacafaono's they feature great acts like Jefferson Coker, The Shane Clark Experience, The Average Savage, Doug Jones (of Cravin' Melon), and Keith Bruce. Also playing there from time to time, The Fairy God Muthas, a local duo consisting of local singer/guitar slinger "Superman" Doug Walters with beer enthusiast and overall drummer about town, Skip De Beatte.

The March Madness Battle of The Bands is almost over. In fact, the final round is this Saturday. The finalists are: 9 p.m. - The Savage Tongues, 10 p.m. - The Shaniqua Brown, 11 p.m. - The Makeshift and at 12 a.m. - The Healing. These bands were the winning bands from 18 bands that competed in six preliminary rounds with the four highest scoring bands advancing to the finals. It all comes down to one night, one winner for the prize (which is $500 along with a portion of the ticket sales for the night of the final show). Last years winner got $1000. We'll see this year. The way the competition was designed, the better the bands promote themselves, the more prize money there is for the winner.

I designed the competition that way because promoting themselves is something bands need to know how to be successful.

But as always with The March Madness Battle of the Bands the big winner is the audience.

A month long competition of young bands putting there best foot forward. During the preliminaries, there were amazing sets of very entertaining music turned in by; Flood Empty Lakes, Casa Nova, Fallen Kings, Gypsy Abandand and many other bands that didn't win their night.

And like the prelims, the cover charge is only $5 for the finals. So maybe you're a fan of one of these bands or maybe your just looking to hear something you've never heard. But four bands, $5, I think it might be worth a shot.

Things get underway at 8:30 p.m., Saturday at A Dough Re Mi.

Stu Johnson is a local musician. To read and comment on past columns, go to www.moultrienews.com. E-mail Stu at sjohnson@allnightkungfu.com.